The previous Thursday: I’d wanted to go to the Adirondacks to see the fall colors the previous weekend, but the weather forecast was horrible and I decided to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Cape Vincent instead. It was now getting quite late in the season; temperatures were dropping into the 30’s in the mountains overnight, but I checked the weekend forecast and it called for sunny weather in the fifties on Saturday. I could drive up Friday after work and arrive there around midnight and then have all day Saturday to hike and snap pictures before driving home on Sunday, but was it worth all that driving for 12 hours of daylight in the mountains?
“I’m thinking of driving up there tomorrow night,” I told my cousin Donnie when I reached him. “Can you make it down for a night and a couple of meals at Noon Mark?”
“I could be there for the day, but I have to get back to stoke the furnace so I can’t camp out,” he said. For him, it was a little over a two-hour drive to Keene Valley, but, like me, he knew it would be worth the trip. He warms his house with firewood and needed to be back in time to replenish the furnace. Living that far north means a long heating season.
“I’m ninety percent sure I’m driving up after work tomorrow so I’ll call you when I’m on the road to let you know for sure. I think I need a day in the mountains to do some thinking and writing. And I need a couple of home-cooked meals at Noon Mark,” I said.
I spent the day at the farm trying to do some rather physical work to make up for the fact that I wouldn’t have time for a workout that night. I dug some fence postholes by hand, which did the trick and then went to work one of my evening jobs after, cutting a lawn. I still had a little daylight once done with the lawn and went for a hike around the Metroparks doing a mental inventory of my gear as I walked. Inevitably, I would get up North and find I’d left something back home. A two-day trip didn’t need too much planning though I had to have my camera, sleeping gear, tent, the right clothes, my writing material, headlight, some food, and some money. Everything else was a luxury. I didn’t have a functioning CD player in the car and so I would be without audio books, which was a concern. I’d need to entertain myself for eight hours and though I am fascinating company, it was a long time. I drove home and began the process of packing the car with everything I would need if I decided to go. I was still uncertain when I climbed into bed.
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